Manchester United Dedicate Europa League Win to Victims of Arena Bombing
Manchester United dedicated their UEFA Europa League win on Wednesday night to the 22 victims who were killed in the bombing of the Manchester Evening News Arena on Monday.
The club paid tribute on Twitter:
Meanwhile, Paul Pogba, who scored in United's 2-0 win over Ajax, told BT Sport after the match (h/t the Guardian's Jacob Steinberg): "We played for the country. We won for them. We played for them, the people who died."
United team-mate Juan Mata also echoed the club's sentiment:
So too did Hesham Bilal-Hafiz of the Manchester Evening News:
Per BBC Sport's Tom Rostance, midfielder Ander Herrera added:
"I want to dedicate this trophy to the victims. This is just football and what happened two days ago was horrible.
"We want peace in the world, a normal world with respect. We are just football players but we have an audience so we just want to see everyone work together for a normal world. This happened in Manchester but everywhere we want to see a united world and fight for peace, respect in the world—no more attack and no more deaths please."
Goals from Pogba and Henrikh Mkhitaryan gave United the win as they out-classed a young and somewhat inexperienced Ajax side with an intelligent display.
Per the BBC, the attack on the arena after an Ariana Grande concert on Monday night left 22 people dead and 64 injured.
Both sides observed a minute's silence ahead of the match, with the crowd applauding in tribute to the victims, and the players also wore black armbands.
